Today, I would like to acknowledge the Yuggera people as the Traditional Custodians of the beautiful land I am standing on today. From the mountains to the river, I open my heart and my eyes as I walk this land, listening, learning and caring for Country. I want to extend this respect to Elders; past, present and emerging and to all First Nations peoples reading this post today. We are all remembered here.
* Please know that this post does contain sponsored content through the use of affiliate links and is based on my own experiences, opinions, and what I have learnt over the years.
Back in 2016 when I first began teaching, as all teachers do, I began creating teaching resources for my classroom. And, not long after I was introduced to the wold of TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers) and the term Teacherpreneur. Which as a first year out teacher, absolutely boggled my mind and got all of my creativity flowing.
BUT...
Back in those days, I was using PowerPoint because, you know; it was what everyone recommended, it was a great starting point, and plus it converted my resources neatly into a PDF for me to upload onto TPT, which was exactly what I needed at the time. But, creating teaching resources this way was a very fiddly and time consuming process. It took me forever to learn and there were so many limitations and additional costs, that I just wasn't expecting. I had to buy my own fonts and clipart or create my own. Which crazily enough - I dabbled in, for a bit too, just to save money and because I love creating and learning new skills. So at the time, I saw it as a learning opportunity, I guess.
Now, speeding forwards to today. I cringe looking back at all of the; time, energy and money I have lost over the years - fiddling, fussing and trying to find workarounds for simple issues like; removing the background of an image I have created, or researching the correct size of an image to post on Instagram, just so I can resize the PowerPoint slide to fit Instagram's dimensions. Ahhh so much time wasted!
For me, these days everything looks insanely different! And, my reason for that is Canva.
Back in 2019, I was on maternity leave with our daughter and I decided to start a blog. Something I had never done before and something I had absolutely no experience in whatsoever! But nonetheless, I wanted to share some content and resources and according to all of the podcasts I was listening to, this was a great place to start. So, I gave it a crack!
I soon realised that PowerPoint was just not going to cut it and as amazing a Photoshop is, I felt like I need to go back to uni to understand how to use it. So, I began to research alternatives and other graphic design tools, which were more user friendly combinations of PowerPoint and Photoshop. This is when I came across Canva Pro. I was given the chance to try it free for 30 days, so I did! I mean after-all what did I have to lose right, it was free!
After my 30 days, I was completely in love and bought the annual Canva Pro subscription (I always buy annual subscriptions if I can, to save money and time) and have never looked back. Now every single graphic you see on my Instagram and blog has been created using Canva Pro and of course all of my teaching resources too.
So, here is a little graphic (which I coincidently I created using Canva Pro) to share with you, why; I chose Canva Pro over PowerPoint and why I would recommend it for you too.
Also, please keep in mind that even though I have listed that PowerPoint has some of these features, in my personal experience, Canva Pro is a far more user friendly experience. As a mum and a teacher, I know you can appreciate that I value my time very highly, and for me; even though I could technically 'remove a background' from an image using PowerPoint. I was not prepared to waste time adding 5 or 6 more steps to something, that could be achieved in either 1 or 2 steps. Time is money!
And just to clarify, as many people like to point out:
"but Canva Education is free for teachers, so we can just use that and get all of the same features for free".
Anonymous teacher
Canva Education is incredible and yes that is true, it is free for teachers! But keep in mind that Canva Education is for education, not for business! Once you begin selling something, it then becomes a business.
If you would like to try Canva Pro free for 30 days just like I did, then feel free to use my affiliate link to start creating by clicking here. By using my affiliate link, I will receive a small commission for recommending it to you, which helps me to continue the work I do and cover the quite extensive labour and maintenance costs associated with my website, blog, resources and social media. I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has already supported me in this way and everyone in the future too.
I hope this post has helped you in your journey of teacherpreneurship and I can't wait to share more tips and tricks with you soon.
If you want to keep up to date with all of my Canva related content, tips, tricks and templates the join my free Canva Classroom Community Email List, I can't wait to begin sharing with you!
